Just skimmed a quote in an article on The Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/03/internet-carbon-footprint

"Soaring online demand stretching companies' ability to deliver content as net uses more power and raises costs. 'In an energy-constrained world, we cannot continue to grow the footprint of the internet … we need to rein in the energy consumption,' said Subodh Bapat, vice-president at Sun Microsystems, one of the world's largest manufacturers of web servers."

I completely disagree!

Given the massive carbon costs of air transport and petrol and its inefficient use in small engines, it is much better for centralized power stations to use the same resources to keep people at home on the Internet!

Not only does online-addiction reduce people's carbon footprints in terms of travel, but, must surely help reduce crime rates and antisocial behaviour too. It keeps the masses mollified, allows the clever ones to do research from the safety of their own homes / libraries, etc, and in general makes the world less messy if more socializing is done electronically.

Listening To: "The Creature" by Implant